Baco Mercat, Downtown Los Angeles {restaurant}

If you’re already in downtown LA, you know, shopping in the Jewelry District or something, Bäco Mercat is worth a try…

Hamachi Crudo $14

with avocado and a hash brown

Potato Salad $11

Caesar Brussels Sprouts Salad $11

with pecorino, anchovy, and garlic

Roasted Broccolini $9

“The Toron” Bäco $12

A “baco,” as I sadly found out, is not a small, synthetic bacon-flavored bit that you shake over your salad, pronounced “bake-oh.” I’ll take a $12 bowl of baco bacon bits! No, a “bäco,” pronounced “bah-co, rhymes with taco, don’t you see the two dots over the a” is just a sandwich made with flatbread folded like a taco. B(read) + (t)aco = Baco? I don’t know.

This bäco called The Toron. Don’t be fooled by the overflow of greens in the photo and think this is some sort of salad in a bun. The Toron is stuffed with a huge portion of oxtail hash (which, as more of a very red/rare oxtail burger, was totally different from the brown braised shredded oxtail I had imagined and totally weirded me out), pickles, cheddar, potatoes, and horseradish.